Kevin Pritchard goes old school in waves

Kevin “Pritchdog” Pritchard goes Old School. Though we are not sure, if it’s really old school. It looks rad how he rides the waves at Ho’okipa. We had a chat with Kevin about “old school” wave riding and his status quo after his board change to Goya. Watch his latest video and read the interview below!

Kevin Pritchard with classic wave windsurfing from H’okipa, Maui, Hawaii

Filmed by SiCrowther, Sabine Zola, Jake Miller, Casey Hauser & ACL Productions

Interview with Kevin Pritchard, March 16th 2019

Continentseven: How are you doing?
Kevin: Man I have been doing really good. Starting to get my motivation back and really getting into the windsurfing now that spring has hit almost. It has been a terrible two months for windsurfing on Maui this season. It’s nice to be on the water and having fun.

Continentseven: You latest video is really nice!!! From when is the footage. You changed to Goya in the meantime, right?
Kevin: The video is from December and a couple days in January. I was not really thinking of changing brands so I was working on this project with Si Crowther. Then right in the middle of the filming the Goya deal happened and so we kinda just finished right there. We had too much footage to just let it sit in the vault so I figured might as well make the video. It will also be a good judge of if the new boards are working any better, which I am pretty happy with them. It is so fun to be able to test with Brawzinho and the rest of the crew that it brings back some motivation. It’s pretty fun.

Continentseven: You returned to Jaws riding the huge waves. You had some scary experience in the past!
Kevin: Well, I have been hanging out with Jason Polakow and riding some waves with him, so he wanted to go up and I was like, yeah I will come with you! Should be fun. I don’t really love riding big waves but oh well. It might be good for the image. Hahaha… What I am happy about is to maybe get the right board for out there now that I am working on boards with Francisco and Brawzinho.

Kevin Pritchard sets an Aerial at Ho’okipa

Continentseven: Are you traveling less or did you do some other trips like snowboarding?
Kevin: I have been having so much fun lately! I went on a bunch of snowboard trips, Japan, Canada, Wyoming and I definitely got pretty addicted to it. So much fun. I am going to have to come back to Austria with you guys to your secret stash of powder.

Continentseven: Yes, visit us. Windsurfing was your profession for more than two decades. What is windsurfing nowadays for you?
Kevin: It still is. I had a little rough patch where I wasn’t feeling my happy, cheery self, and I think that showed on the water. I was doing it for just the sake of doing it, not for my passion. So it is good to have a little change on the boards and bring back a little spunk into the wave riding. It is nice.

Continentseven: You call your style old school in the video. What are the old school elements? It looks really rad how you ride the Hawaiian waves!
Kevin: Just that there is no tricks in the whole video. It is all about turns and turns and turns. Maybe a couple airs and things like that, but basically just old school riding.

Continentseven: Would you say full rail turns and powerful Cutbacks, Aerials.. count less nowadays compared to the rides of the young generation?
Kevin: For sure. You have to do all the spins and tricks and airs. I think it is hard for the judges to differentiate between a super powerful bottom turn and one that is just going straight into the lip and doing a big air. But maybe that is just an excuse cause I don’t really enjoy them as much as a full rail to rail bottom turn to off the lip. It is hard to set up for a big air when you drop deep into your bottom turn. I think Levi has some of his spin tricks with a deep bottom turn and that looks pretty good.

Continentseven: We saw Antoine and Bernd in the top ranks in the IWT in Japan. Is it over for the older riders or do you need huge conditions to beat the young ones?
Kevin: I think this is the best thing about the IWT. It allows people like Antoine, Bernd and Camille to be in competition and get used to competing and that is where Antoine has really improved a lot. I think the older riders can still do good no problem, just needs to be the right conditions.

Continentseven: We of course know, that you can land the latest moves! But does the real KP feel more home riding in classic style, with a lot of drive, speed and deep turns?
Kevin: Yeah, I think I just like doing them more than spinning around all the time. When I get bored I start to mix up the spins and tricks, but normally I just like the basic turns and hacks.

Pritchdog with a great basic turn just in front of a Ho’okipa wave

Continentseven: Is the older style the cooler one and does it work better in most conditions?
Kevin: Nah, it’s all about progression. The sport needs to progress and that’s what these kids are doing. It’s very impressive.

Continentseven: Scott McKercher quoted the Kinks, who sang, “We’re dedicated followers of fashion” Are we?
Kevin: I guess so. We all want to be in style and have the most fun.

Continentseven: Will we see you competing in 2019 or do you have other plans for this season?
Kevin: I think I am going to do the Aloha Classic. I think this will give me a goal and be able to start the training process again and get focused.

Continentseven: Who are your favorite riders at Ho’okipa at the moment?
Kevin: I really like watching Brawzinho at the moment. He is just crushing it ever time he goes out on the water. It’s impressive.

Continentseven: Did you follow the Storm Chase?
Kevin: I saw a couple of the highlight clips. I thought I wanted to do one of those but now.. hmmm, now not so much.

Continentseven: Thanks for the interview and keep on ripping the waves…